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Specific vs. General Quotations 



A furtuiture miiiiufacturer was laughingly discussing the let- 

 ters which he receives from lumbermen who have stock to offer. 



"They are all so nearly alike," he said, "that unless I pay 

 close attention to the letter-heads and the signatures, I am likely 

 to assume that they are all from the same person. 



"I am constantly informed that lumber is being offered which 

 consists of dry stock of good lengths and widths, and that the 

 grades are all right. Inasmuch as everybody tells me this, how- 

 am I to determine which is the best lumber? As a matter of fact 

 I am not able to do so, and a letter of this kind doesn't interest 

 me at all. I am looking for specific facts, not generalities, and 

 there is no more reason v.hy I should buy lumber without know- 

 ing what the description of the stock being offered me is than I 

 should order a suit of clothes without examining the pattern or 

 finding out something about the design which is to be used in 

 making up the suit." 



The art of letter writing used to consist of the ability to 

 string pretty phrases together, and make a dissertation on the 

 weather or the condition of the spring crops sound like one of 

 Lamb's essays. Letters in the good old days were not supposed 

 to sell goods. Now, however, the letter-writer who commands 

 the most praise — and salary — must be more than an artful com- 

 poser. He must not only be able to use words to the best ad- 

 vantage, but must weave enough facts into his epistles to en- 

 able the man at the other end of the line to visualize the goods 

 which he is offering. 



These are at least the principles which apply to letter-writing 

 when selling every other class of goods in the country, and there 

 is no good reason why they should not be true of lumber. 

 Lumber is frequently sold by mail to consumers, at the expense 

 of the retail dealer, who wonders how it is done and insists that 

 it is because of some sleight-of-hand or underground methods 

 which will not stand the light of day. Probably, however, mail- 

 order concerns which flourish on their lumber trade manage to 

 sell because they are able to describe their goods as attractively 

 as though they were talking about grand pianos, books or motor- 

 boats, and consequently get the interest and attention of the 

 man who is in the market for lumber. The yardman in the towa 

 of the consumer can't tell his prospect much about the stock, 

 except that he will agree to deliver so many thousand feet of a 

 certain grade. Naturally the better description wins, even 

 though it is a long-distance effort, prices and other factors being 

 equal. 



A lumber salesman, working on commission for a sawmill 

 down South, used to get in touch with possible customers in 

 the market where he was located over the telephone. There 

 may have been occasions when he varied his methods of offering 

 stock, but they were not many. Usually his appeal for business 

 •was something like this: 



"I've got a mighty fine car of plain oak ready for shipment, 

 and if you can use it, I'll make the price right. It's dry as a 

 bone, and has good, wide stock in it. This is good stuff, ' ' etc., 

 «tc. 



The fault of the solicitation was that the salesman did not 

 know anything about the lumber he was trying to sell. Conse- 

 quently he was not able to give the customer a particularly 

 clear impression of it, except that it was lumber of a certain kind 

 and grade. Besides, the temptation was constantly present to 

 vary the description to suit the needs of the consumer, and if 

 the latter wanted a certain percentage of long stock, or required 

 the lumber to be six or eight months from the saw, he immedi- 

 ately gave assurances that such was the case. Then, if he had 

 quoted a low enough price, the order was sent in, and probably 

 he had to settle a kick a little later in case the description of 

 the lumber delivered failed to tally exactly with that which he 

 had given verbally. That there should be a coincidence in these 



34 



descriptions would be a coincidence of circumstance and not 

 the result of premeditation. 



Many lumbermen argue that it is impossible to describe lumber 

 exactly, and that the salesman who tried to describe the stock 

 he was selling, as far as lengths, widths and age are concerned, 

 would not only attempt the impossible, but would embarrass his 

 employer. They take the ground that in most cases the informa- 

 tion is not at hand, especially if a wholesale business is being 

 done and lumber is coming in from a large number of mills and 

 moving out in quantity every day. They state further that is 

 is not practicable to try to give data which can only be secured 

 by an extremely laborious compilation of facts from the tally- 

 sheets. 



It may be that this is the case; yet, with the point so clear 

 that lack of identity is what hampers lumber sales, and that 

 giving offerings of lumber individuality by descriptions based oti 

 the actual qualifications of the stock would help to move it in 

 cases where ordinary methods fail to get results, there seems to be 

 room for the operator who will go to the trouble of digging 

 up those facts and supplying them to his salesmen so that they 

 in turn can oft'er their customers not merely lumber, but cer- 

 tain lumber. 



The average buyer is not in the market for merely lumber. He 

 has certain definite needs, and unless he is making a wide 

 variety of goods and therefore requiring numerous dimensions, 

 he prefers to have his stock run according to given widths and 

 lengths, just as he wants it to run according to agreed grades and 

 thicknesses. If one lumberman agrees to deliver a car of lumber 

 containing thirty per cent of 12-foot boards, and twenty-five per 

 cent 10 inches or over in width, whereas another offering has no 

 statement as to the percentage of wide and long stock, it is a 

 practical certainty that if his requirements run in that direction, 

 the purchaser will buy the first named car. 



A prominent hardwood man said: "I have gotten expressions 

 from customers which prove to me that the biggest mistake made 

 is to write a letter which is intended to sell lumber, and then fill 

 it with stock phrases, general statements and improbable claims 

 as to the character of the stock, when you know that the pros- 

 pective buyer is trying to find out the exact description of the 

 lumber. If I can't tell all about it, I tell as much as I know; 

 and that goes a long way in getting the attention of the buyer, 

 who is likely, otherwise, to toss your carefully framed epistle into 

 the wastebasket with no more compunction than you would a cir- 

 cular from a concern that is trying to sell you a piece of ma- 

 chinery without telling you what it will do, how much it will 

 cost or why you should install it in your mill." 



Another consideration in this connection is that the efficiency 

 of salesmen can be greatly increased if sales letters are properly 

 used. Most of the time the traveling man solicits customers with- 

 out knowing whether or not they are in the market or are likely 

 to be. He simply "makes the rounds" and picks up whatever 

 inquiries he happens to run across. His calls are limited in num- 

 ber, of course, and inasmuch as a large proportion of those seen 

 are not buying, the number of people solicited who are actually 

 ready to purchase is extremely small. 



If selling efforts were extended in the direction of letters tell- 

 ing what the firm had to offer, and advising that if the customer 

 were interested a salesman would call with a complete descrip- 

 tion of the lumber, it is probable that the elusive inquiry could be 

 cornered and the time of the salesman put into much better advan- 

 tage than under present conditions, with the latter "shooting at 

 the moon" most of the time in his quest for business. 



It would mean a little more careful cultivation and a little more 

 intensive effort, but according to the scientific farmers that is the 

 kind of system which makes crops increase. 



